Fewer jail inspectors has consequences

Wednesday

May 30, 2012 at 12:01 AMMay 30, 2012 at 7:12 AM

In a move to downsize the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, three state jail inspectors were laid off last year, with devastating consequences. One inspector remains, who alone cannot inspect 349 Ohio jails and keep them safe and secure.

In a move to downsize the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, three state jail inspectors were laid off last year, with devastating consequences. One inspector remains, who alone cannot inspect 349 Ohio jails and keep them safe and secure.

Tragedies will be only the tip of the iceberg if no serious action is taken to restore cuts to Ohio's state budget.

Budget cuts have devastated core services in numerous state-government agencies, as well as in towns, cities and schools across Ohio. The Kasich administration cannot continue to make cuts to rank-and-file staff members, including jail inspectors, and think there will be no consequences.

Other services essential to the safety of our communities also have been wiped out. The department's Office of Victim Services was eliminated, as were posts in prison watchtowers, such as those at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. All training officers who trained new corrections officers in our state prisons were cut. And now a crucial agency, the Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services, will be absorbed into the agency dealing with mental-health issues, even as gambling expands and prescription-drug abuse skyrockets.

Ohioans deserve better than this. Not only should the three jail inspectors immediately be reinstated, but a careful examination of all cuts made in state-government personnel and services over the last year should be undertaken right away, before it's too late.

CHRISTOPHER A. MABE

President

Ohio Civil Service Employees Association

Columbia Station

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